Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Modern Mathematics In Secondary Education, Sandra Lee Sawyer

Honors Theses

Until recently, the mathematics curriculum in elementary and secondary schools had been relatively unchanged for a century or more. While both elementary and secondary school programs are undergoing special studies, the most extensive curriculum projects to date have been focused on the secondary school.

First, let us consider the purpose of modern math. There has been much criticism about changing from the traditional math to the modern math. As mathematician Allendoerfer explains: "More than anything else, the new math is a new approach to old ideas, a mixture of intuition, deduction, and application."